Graphic Art Style Notebook #2

Melina Simonian2006

Swiss Style 9 -14Josef Müller-Brockmann

Bauhaus 3 - 8László Moholy-Nagy

New York Style 15-20Saul Bass

Post-Modernism 21-26Neville Brody

Contemporary 27-32 Margo Chase

László Moholy-NagyLászló

Born in a small village in Austria-Hungry on July 20, 1895, Moholy-Nagy started expressing himself through writing during his school years. He became aware of his gift in drawing when serving as an officer in the army during World War I. He created a record of his military career by producing hundreds of lively and humourous sketches, many in color on the back of the military-issue postcards. In 1920, Moholy-Nagy considered himself a painter. Joining the avant-garde artists, he moved to Berlin. His drawings and paintings were figurative tending towards Expressionism until he discovered constructivism. Constructivist social philosophy attracted Moholy-Nagy since it considered art and the artist as active agents in improving the society. At the age of 27, Moholy-Nagy became a teacher, joining the staff of the Bauhaus. He taught Metal workshop which became one of the most active and successful workshops in the whole Bauhaus, and later replacing an instructor teaching preliminary course which was the fundamental principles of design. His interest in

typography and design grew faster as he wrote and edited the Bauhausbücher, the most successful marketing tool for the school. From 1926 on, he co-edited the Bauhaus journal with Walter Gropius (the school’s founder). In his teaching and published statements, Moholy-Nagy often referred to the importance of foundational purpose for art and artists to improve and extend the human sense of perception. Moholy-Nagy, just like many of his peer group pioneered a modernist approach to graphic design, die neue typographie, (the new typography) using lower-case alphabets with inks of primary colors and photographic illustrations, with the aim of creating a universal and democratic medium.

Thanks to Moholy-Nagy’s exceptional adaptability and talent antagonisms more or less abated and he threw himself heart and soul into representing and even promoting the Bauhaus ideas. With his youth, many-sidedness, undiminished energy and educational bent, it was in him that the Bauhaus ideals achieved their most concentrated form during this period between 1923 and 1928. (Passuth 40 )

Hungarian theorist of graphic design and visual communication, László Moholy-Nagy became an noteworthy great pioneer of “new Typography” and an educator at Bauhaus. He wrote several books on graphic design and explored the full potential of photo reproduction with his photographs and photograms. Relegating verbal language to a position of lesser importance than the visual, he worked in so many different kinds of media such as paint, photography, film, sculpture and print. Greatly influenced by constructivism, Moholy-Nagy believed in the power of combining technology and industry into the arts.

London. He photographed contemporary architecture for the Architectural Review and also created exhibitions, book jackets, posters, stage designs and costumes. Some of Moholy-Nagy ’s best and most famous photographs date f rom this period. His photographs were characterized by multiple exposures, strong diagonals, worm’s-eye and bird’s-eye views and combining disassociated shadows coming f rom different light sources into the composition. Not all of his photographic work was produced by a camera, he also created camera less photographs, photograms and sometimes photomontages called fotoplastiks f rom existing photographs or reproductions combined together to create a new meaning. Photomontage as an industrial material and technique helped him to portray modern life in a new manner. Moholy-Nagy left Europe in 1937 for the United States, where he settled in Chicago and opened the School of Design in 1939 to carry on the Bauhaus ideals. He continued to paint, photograph, lecture and publish until his death f rom leukemia in 1946. Moholy-Nagy ’s reputation today, as during his lifetime, owed more to his

achievements as a theorist, as a brilliant teacher and through his publications on art than to his work as an artist. He also tried to open his students’ minds to new techniques and new media through books like Vision in Motion which presented his educational philosophy and principles of the Bauhaus. Moholy-Nagy influenced avant-garde design and promoted the importance and acceptance of photography in advertising.

Cover for magazine die neue linie Designed by Moholy-Nagy,1929

Passuth, Krisztina 40, ‘Maholy-Nagy’. Thames and Hudson Inc., New York, 1985

Department of Photographs. ‘Photography at the Bauhaus’ In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000<http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phbh/hd_phbh.htm (October 2004)>

Aynsley, Jereymy 65. “A Century of Graphic Design” NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. 2001.

Cover of Hollandische Architektur Designed by Moholy-Nagy 1926

The Bauhaus encouraged its artists to have a wide variety of skills and Moholy-Nagy became very proficient and innovative in the fields of photography, sculpture, painting, typography and industrial design. Later when he started earning a living through commercial design work, it was the result of combining all his artistic experiments f rom photomontages, drawings, photograms and photographs. This experience reinforced the Bauhaus’ philosophy of maintaining no barrier between fine art and commercial art. Since photography was Moholy-Nagy ’s main interest, he utilized the camera as an ideal tool to explore and invent a new way of conceiving and understanding the world. At the same time, he was one of the pioneers in graphic design who realized the unlimited possibility and power of photography in advertising and commercial art.

Aided by his wife, Lucia Moholy, the dynamic young artist had established himself as one of the prime movers and enthusiastic advocates of experimental photographic techniques. While at the school, he continued to write artic les and books on the subject, inc luding his seminal Malerei, Photographie, Film (Painting, Photography, Film, 1925), which was il lustrated with many of his own photographs. He demonstrated unusual camera vantages and various darkroom techniques that were tantalizingly f resh: they constituted, he believed, a “new vision” for a medium that was surely the expressive vehic le of the future. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Moholy-Nagy was so committed to the new vision embracing the significance of design that he pronounced that the il literate of the future would be those who could not use a camera. (Aynsley 65)

As a f reelance designer Moholy-Nagy took on a number of different commissioned design and photography projects as a f reelance designer. He edited the art and photography department of the European avant-garde magazine International Revue i 10 in Amsterdam and designed Imperial Airways brochure in London to promote the idea of air travel in

-Josef

MüllerBrockmann

Two schools taught this new style in its land of origin, one in Basel, headed by Armin Hofmann, the other in Zurich under the leadership of Josef Müller-Brockmann. By way of his several books on the subject and his numerous advertising posters designed using this style, Müller-Brockmann (as well as Armin Hofmann) created a “ look” and “feel” that was uniquely reflective of the Swiss culture. Scholars on the subject suggest that Müller-Brockmann’s exploration of rhythm and tempo in visual form was his most significant contribution to the acceptance of this style worldwide. Prior to his role in giving rise to the Swiss Style Müller-Brockmann studied architecture, design and histor y of art at the University and Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. In 1936 after setting up a studio in that city, he concentrated on graphics, photography and exhibitions. By 1951 he had designed several Constructivist-influenced concert posters for Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and had created a series of distinct and quite powerful public health and safety posters using photomontage techniques. The poster ( Watch That Child!) Schützt das Kind! was the first poster from the public health and safety poster series designed using the photomontage technique. T hese series, sponsored by the Swiss Automobile Club, were supposed to warn the automobiles and motor-cycles to the speeding dangers of driving.

For a Swiss public-awareness campaign to prevent road accidents and encourage greater awareness of the risks of motor traffic, Müller-brockmann developed a series of objective photographic posters overlaid with direct typographic messages. (Aynsley)

“Watch that child!” Designed by Josef Müller-Brockmann, 1953

In the 1950s a new graphic design style was born in Switzerland and because of

its strong dependence on the importance of typographic elements, this new Swiss Style came to be known as the International Typographic Style. (For the sake of brevity, it shall herein be referred to simply as Swiss style.) T his new style was distinguished from others by g rids and unified str ucture, sans serif typefaces in a flush left or ragged r ight format and black and white photog raphy.

Müller-Brockmann’s continuing passion for poster design lent him the perfect vehicle by which to work with, refine and communicate the principles of this new design style. Such designs as those for the Tonhalle Orchestra also provided the means by which he could continue to explore and gain experience in the usage of this approach. He reduced the design elements to the minimum, organized the information in an asymmetrical arrangement and made the Akzidenz-Grotesk his preferred choice in typeface.

... their geometrical and abstract elements were arranged in free, non-constructive two-dimensional compositions. Müller-brockmann, a lover and connoisseur of music, justified these designs by arguing that music, being the most abstract of the arts, can only be interpreted abstractly within the two-dimensional form of the poster. In 1951 he attempted subjective graphic interpretation of individual musical works. This sophistication was scarcely perceived by the public. It gave way to a freer interpretation of the music for single concerts or concert series.(Müller )

Müller-brockmann relied ser iousl y on composition, t ypog raphy and c lear communication. As long as he showed effective use of form, color and image to communicate his ideas, the simplicity of the overall composition didn’t adversely effect the visual sophistication and quality of the poster a bit. Josef Müller-Brockmann, a father of functional objective design and an influential figure, set a high standard and became a great role model for generations of students and designers around the world.

Designs made by Müller-brockmann in the 1950s are as current and vital as they were a half-centur y ago and communicate their message with intensity and clarity. (Meggs )

Aynsley, Jereymy 125. “A Century of Graphic Design” NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. 2001.

Müller, Lars 32. “Josef Müller-Brockmann Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design” 2001. Lars Müller Publisher

Meggs, Philip B. & Purvis, Alston W. , Meggs’ “History of Graphic Design”. NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2006. Fourth edition

“The Friendly Hand-signal” Designed by Josef Müller-Brockmann, 1955

Swiss committee to Combat Noise Designed by Josef Müller-Brockmann, 1960

Müller-Brockmann founded and co-edited a trilingual journal called (New graphic Design) Neue Grafik which helped to spread the Swiss design principles and values internationally. In addition to designing as a freelancer, he taught graphic design and wrote several books such as The Graphic Artist and His Design Problems (1961), Grid Systems in Graphic Design (1981) and The Histor y of Visual Communication (1961). In his first book The Graphic Artist and His Problems, Müller-Brockmann used his own work to explain the meaning of the design elements like typography, photography, drawing, text, logo and color in advertising. He provided valuable guidance for students and teachers alike on fundamental design problems. Müller-Brockmann confidently presented in his books the design concepts he had founded and which he had expounded upon at length during his four year tenure in the Zurich school’s department of graphic design.

Zurich Tonhalle concert posters Designed by Müller-Brockmann

Born in the Bronx in 1920, Bass created art work even as a kid. Instructed by Gyorgy Kepes, a Hungarian graphic designer and a f riend of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Bass studied at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College. After moving to Los Angeles in 1946, Bass worked as an art director for the advertising agency Buchanan & Company, the agency that handled Paramount Pictures. His first opportunity to work in Hollywood came with the movie poster design for the movie Carmen Jones a collaboration with director Otto Preminger. Before Bass came along, the movie posters were mostly rendered as pictorial narratives showing the main characters of the film. He changed the tradition by redefining film’s visual language and reducing the visual elements to a minimum. In 1955, he became widely known after creating the movie poster and the title sequence to The Man With the Golden Arm for Preminger.

..., Preminger’s film about a drug-addicted poker dealer, was marked by a strikingly new identity. The title sequence, an exercise in syncopation, gave the film a cool, modern and distinctly edgy feel. On its opening, slab-like white bars appear, accompanied by a shrill

jazz score. Gradually the typography enters, giving the names of the cast and the film’s title, before the white bars take the shape of a jagged arm with a contorted hand ad the director’s credit appears. Bass’s animated publicity graphics were drawn on for all other stages of the film’s promotion. (Aynsley 105)

The cut-out arm in the poster of The Man With the Golden Arm and the title sequence caused a sensation. Bass had reinvented the movie title as an art form which in the past appeared only as some boring straight lines of type. He worked very closely with other famous directors such as Alf red Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick and John Frankenheimer creating film titles and posters that incorporate the simplest design elements. Some of his movie posters and title sequences were Anatomy of a Murder (1959), West Side Story (1961), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), , North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), Around the World in eighty Days (1956), Casino (1995), The age of Innocence (1993), It ’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Anatomy of a Murder, Vertigo (1958), Schindler’s List and so on.

Poster for movie “The man with the Golden Arm” designed by Saul Bass

n extraordinary graphic designer of the mid-20th century, Saul Bass, produced and designed some of the world’s most famous and imaginative movie posters and title sequences. His title sequences, shown at the beginning of the film during the opening credits actually gave clues to the kind of story people were about to see instead of just identifying the film. Bass’s fame came from his strong visual imagery which communicated more effectively than the verbal language. He also designed successful branding and corporate identities for such companies as United Airlines, Bell Telephone System, AT&T, Minolta, General Foods, Girls Scouts of the USA and Warner Communications.

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Bass was instrumental in redefining the visual language of film. His graphic compositions in movement, coupled with the musical score, function as a prologue to the movie; setting the tone, establishing the mood and foreshadowing the action. His titles are not simply identification tags, but pieces that are integral to the work as a whole. When his opening sequence appears, the movie truly begins. (Counts)

Saul Bass: a modern Graphic designer who seized the opportu-nity to create something greater than the average, accepted norms. From the creation of some of the best-known corporate logos to the evolution of the motion picture opening title sequence, he not only heightened our emotions and sen-sibilities; he changed our world.

Aynsley, Jereymy 105. “A Century of Graphic Design.” NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. 2001.

BFI. 18 Oct. 2006. “Saul Bass”<http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/event-sexh/past/saulbass/biography.html>

Counts, J. 05 Dec. 2006. “Just the Beginning:The Art of Film Titles”. <http://www.twenty4.co.uk/on-line/issue 001/project01/proj01index.htm>

Poster for movie “Exodus” designed by Saul Bass

Poster for movie “West Side Story” designed by Saul Bass

Saul Bass revolutionized film title and credit sequence design. He had

the ability to grasp the very essence of a film and present it in such a way that in an opening sequence lasting just a few minutes he could convey the atmosphere and premise of the film to come. Under his influence the title sequence became an extension of the film, as well as an art form in its own right, with the capacity to symbolise and summarize what the audience was about to experience.(BFI.org)

Enhancing the ability of an audience to get into the “mood” of a film during the opening credits often led to increased success for that film, be that success commercial, artistic or both. Bass accomplished this by pioneering the use of animation techniques in his titles and simple, yet powerful images in his posters. His was a new creative vision and a unique approach, showing the symbols, words and images of the specific title enter the screen with erratic or playful dancing motions. Most of the time these symbols or abstract images (a simple drawing, cutout paper or broken handwritten type) teased the story line. In Anatomy of a Murder and Man with the Golden Arm Bass utilized angular and f ragmented depictions of bodies along with the use of jagged typeface and basic color. This graphic style distinguished itself immediately f rom the conventional, realistic images and looks of that period.

Poster for movie “Anatomy of a murder” designed by Saul Bass

Logo for “Minolta” designed by Saul Bass

Poster for movie “Saint Joan” designed by Saul Bass

BrodyNeville!

In the early 1980s Neville Brody contributed to a defining moment in British graphic design. When many established names were considered to have joined the mainstream or lost their interest for younger designers, Brody represented a heady mix of fashion, graphics, music and style culture. He re-energized graphic design by bringing together, in a new way, sources from the edges of youth style and commercial culture. (Aynsley)

The Face was not entirely successful because it simply became another set of ground rules for a new generation of designers...I wanted other people to challenge The Face, not to copy it, and I wanted to establish a strong dialogue. The Face was a catalyst for this argument—how can design bring a greater dynamism to the content, now that we live in a predominantly visual age?(Livingston)

After studying Graphic Design at the London College of Printing, Brody started working for Fetish Records, an independent record company. There, Brody was given complete freedom to experiment with the cover design, blending the graphic Arts with painting to achieve a new sense of structure. According to Brody this afforded him his first attempt to depart from the norm. Brody began making a name for himself when he became the Art Director for The Face, a new style and culture magazine. According to Brody:

During the 5 years starting from 1981 Brody transformed The Face by creating an increased awareness of visual language such as directional symbols, open space, a single photographic portrait and huge headlines typefaces with bold-handwritten look. He even designed many sans-serif typefaces especially for the magazine to strengthen its own graphics

image of it. Later many other magazine design opportunities followed. The two best seller graphic design books The Graphic Language of Neville Brody published in 1988 and The Graphic Language of Neville Brody 2 in 1994 by Jon Wolzencroft featured his accumulated design experiences as a graphic designer and a typographer.

Computer Arts Projects magazine cover designed by Brody and Research Studios

Examples of magazine layout designed by Brody

ell known, cutting edge British designer and art director Neville Brody, holds one of the most influential and powerful portfolios of the last two decade. He has been involved as an art director or designer for album covers, magazines, books, advertising and retail outlets worldwide with countless projects. His innovative and experimental approach to typography and digital design can be seen in the two monographs, The Graphic Language of Neville Brody and The Graphic Language of Neville Brody 2, as well as FUSE, The Face and several other international books and periodicals.

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Like postmodernism Brody ’s work challenged the order and clarity of modern design. Still inspired by dada, constructivist, modernist and expressionist designs of the inter-war years, he applied the street style (like distressed type) of being playful and instinctive to his work. Once again, he pushed the boundaries of the visual communication by giving it a contemporar y twist.

Poster for Fuse 3 and 4, FontShop International 1991-2

His POSTMODERNISM, in the aftermath of PUNK, challenged most of the conventions in editorial design. Designed and manipulated many images and varieties of TYPEFACE into new, often illegible, shapes and proportions. ( Wozencroft)

Examples of magazine layout designed by Brody

As a young designer, Brody made a strong impression on what was considered the dull and boring world of British graphic design in the early 1980s. Since then, by taking advantage of the power of digital technology, he has become one of the most highly sought-after graphic designers of our post modern era.

Aynsley, Jereymy 222. “A Century of Graphic Design.” NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. 2001.

Livingston, Isabella and Alan 35. “ The Thames and Hudoson Diction-ary of Graphic Design and Designers” 1998

Wozencroft, Jon 106. “ The Graphic Language of Neville Brody” NY: A Division of Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.

“Art in Sacred Spaces” event poster designed by Brody and Research Studios Brody launched the experimental type magazine F USE (the magazine of the future) in 1990, and ever y issue of F USE accompanied by a CD containing four experimental fonts digitized for Macintosh, accompanied by a CD and four posters showing each typeface in creative application. Brody, as one of the F USE editors and type designers contributed and still does to innovative trends in the field of digital typography, graphic design and multimedia. Brody started his first studio in London in 1987. Today he with his business partner and their creative team in “Research Studios” create solutions in all media from print to electronic communication for clients such as BMW, Nike, The Body shop, Swatch, Thames & Hudson, The Museum of Modern Art, AGFA, Reuters, Macromedia, Deutsche Bank, Armani, United Artists and many many more. His subsidiar y studios “Research Arts” specializes in creating film titles and sequences for clients like Paramount Pictures, United Artist, Warner Brothers, Turner Network Television and so on while “Research Publishing” specializes in creating and publishing Typefaces and designing Web sites for the internet.

Examples of magazine layout designed by Brody

MargoChase

“Living proof ” tour book for Cher designed by Chase

Noted early on for designing hundreds of fonts, logos and identities for such entertainment clients as Madonna, Cher and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the creative agency is now equally well known for bringing strong business results to corporate clients. Mattel, Target, WB-TV, USA Networks and AIG Sun America are a few of the companies that have selected Chase Design Group for brand identities and applications that include advertising campaigns, corporate collateral, packaging, style guides and environmental design.(chasedesigngroup )

With the influence of some, many in her family (mother drew, painted and made furniture, grandfather photographed, aunts painted, even her father an aerospace engineer by trade, has been an accomplished jazz guitarist...) Chase began drawing at an early age. Still, when the time came to enroll in college she majored in biology in Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo planning to study Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. As part of her liberal arts credits she took an illustration class in the graphic design department and finished the class with an easy A. This, her first contact with graphic design, helped her to realize both her talent for and love of the graphic arts. As a result Chase added a minor in graphic design to her biology curriculum.

After her bachelor ’s degree, Chase enrolled in the University of California, San Francisco’s medical illustration program, thinking this might be a way to combine biology with design. “It ’s not,” she said. “You can’t move the liver, or change its color, to make the composition look better.” Chase opted to shop around for a job in design with her book full of medical illustrations.(Goulet)

After a paste up job for a grocery store chain’s ads and packaging, Chase did her first design project for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival. Soon after she formed the Chase Design Group and utilized her experience and knowledge to produce work in many areas of design. Her appreciation for the use of computer in design came f rom her previous tedious paste up job, and love of organic shapes in her work came f rom her biology studies.

The inspiration necessary to drive a talented contemporary graphic artist and designer to a successful career can come from many directions and stimuli. For Margo Chase, it has come from insatiable curiosity. As an art director, she founded the Los Angeles based design company Chase Design Group in 1986 which is today widely known for its award winning work. The company’s slogan “Design that moves you” has made Chase famous and has served

her corporate, entertainment and international clients well.

Chase is one of the most influential graphic designers today. Her work is constantly featured in several design magazines, periodicals and books such as I.D., Communication Arts, Graphis, HOW and several exhibitions all over the country. Chase is invited to give speeches and teach c lasses in schools such as Art Center College of Design and California Institute of the Arts. Once asked about the role of a graphic designer in regards to our pop culture, Margo Chase responded that designers have an important role in shaping the culture everyday. They are the ones that create powerful images and graphic forms for people and products in our society. Designers refine and express our cultural experiences and eventually shape the culture by having an impact on how society and consumers feel and react everyday.

Branding project for “Perdu”, a lingerie store in Saudi Arabia

Chase Design Group <http://www.chasedesigngroup.com>

Goulet, Nancy “Past Lives Arriving at design through the back door” Communication Arts magazine August Photography Annual 2005<http://www.commarts.com/CA/coldesign/nanG_282.html Margo Chase>

Donahue, Ann “Gothic graphics:Margo Chase Design...Small Business” Los Angeles Business Journal, June 21, 1999<http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_25_21/ai_55083684>

Logolounge “Featured Designer: Margo Chase” <http://www.logolounge.com/articles/default.asp?Archive=True&ArticleID=82>

Imagine creating an identity and complete environmental design for a new retail store, without being permitted to show the products that are for sale, nor talk about or demonstrate their end use. Imagine you can neither speak nor read the language you must use in the identity, and your own cultural upbringing could not be more different than your c lient ’s and that of his customers. (logolounge)

Over the past 20 years Chase Design Group has been especially successful because of its specialization in creating effective branding and identity design for the entertainment industry, mostly music and film. All these campaigns have been planned carefully by going through the process of research and hard work. Chase’s custom designed typography for the movie titles or TV shows such as “TARZAN”, “Charmed” , “The Wizard of Oz” and many more are very recognizable by her signature Gothic style.

“There’s an over lay of mysticism, the occult and the supernatural in her work,” said Philip Meggs, an art professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who has followed Chase’s work. “She has to get top bil ling among people who created the Gothic culture that ’s prevalent among young people. I think she’s had more influence on defining that culture than the music or films that are produced by it.”(Donahue )

Chase Design Group is globally recognized because of its belief in creating emotional connection (trust, excitement, curiosity...) with its c lient before and the target audience af ter accomplishing a project; a connection that overcomes language and goes beyond boarders and culture. Example of such project can be seen in 1991 when Chase Design Group created the movie title and the poster for Bram Stoker ’s “Dracula”. The movie title became an icon because it stimulated an immediate response and provoked the audience’s emotion of agonizing and distress every time. Another example of branding that challenged the Chase Design Group to overcome the difference between language and culture was the identity and store design for “Perdu”, a lingerie store in Saudi Arabia.